Celebration, Over The Hill, Chistmas Gifts and Poker

It was great last night to get out. I really enjoyed getting my mind off of things for a while. I had a few drinks and relaxed and just sort of soaked in my new found freedom. I spoke for a bit with my female friend from work. She has really shown me that I deserve more and better in life than what Tara could have ever given me. I guess I always knew this down inside, but was blinded by love and didn't want to believe it before. I had resigned myself to giving up my dreams to make my wife happy and that was such a poor thing for me to do. I should have respected myself first and foremost regardless of Tara's inability to dream or to be loved.

Today was an interesting day. My family always makes huge productions out of 30th, 40th and 50th birthdays. We throw huge over the hill parties and are always trying to get one up on each other. My brother's 30th birthday was in November 2006. I'm not sure why it took all the way until January 2007 to throw his party, but my family chose to do that today. He was told it was a birthday party for our cousin (who is celebrating her birthday next week) and when he showed up, he was surprised that he was being ambushed for his 30th birthday.

Some of the family members reminded me that they had gifts for my step children. I told them that Tara had not even allowed me to give my gifts to them and that I have not contacted or even attempted to communicate with Tara since I received her petition for the protective order on December 15th. Even though I won in court and her case was dismissed and I could attempt to contact her, I have not attempted to contact my wife since that time. My children keep asking to call but the last time they called (before December 15th), they left a voice message and Tara has not returned that call.

Tonight, I was invited to and played another poker game. This is only the second live poker game that I've played and I finished in 2nd place. I played well but was able to see my weaknesses again and know that I'll need a fair bit of work to improve my offline/live poker game. I really enjoyed playing again and was happy to see that I again out played several people who are regulars to these games and who are considered to be good at the game.

Well, I'm off to write for my other blogs for a bit before I go to bed.

Weird Day

Today was sort of a weird day for me.

First off, I have to say that this blog has had another record day. So far today, we've had 87 different people come by. I'm absolutely thrilled that so many people are taking an interest in my story. If you didn't know, when you stop by, you can comment on any of the articles by clicking the "comments" link beneath the article. You can also read the comments that have been left by other people when you click on that link.

Today, one of the managers at work commented that I looked like I was losing weight. This was the first time that someone noticed and mentioned it. It really made me feel good to know that it was slowly becoming visible. I don't really see where I've yet lost enough pounds for people to tell but I'm glad none the less that someone has noticed. That just encourages me even that much more.

What really made today weird was that I got asked on a date. It caught me completely off guard. I'm the sort of guy that really likes a woman who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to ask for it so I'm really intrigued that I was asked. The truth is, I don't really feel like dating at this point. But I need the distraction from everything else. I haven't decided yet if I'll go out, but it felt very good to have someone else ask me out.

I accomplished several items on my list and called around for apartments again today and again I had no luck in finding anything that had openings. I'm pretty close to giving up and just renting the house I found in Krotz Springs. I'm sure I'll be accused of moving there just to harass my wife or spy on her, but that's Tara's problem if she wants to flatter herself in that way.